EN:
I am from Holland I would love to also post a Património Português (Portuguese Heritage) Waymark. In trying to figure out the way to find one which I could post (which was not already done), while we were in Lisbon. This site gives a great map overview of the heritage sites: (
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So I noticed the Convent of Nossa Senhora do Bom Sucesso in Belem.
The website of the convent mentions the following history:
"Colégio do Bom Sucesso belongs to the Congregation of Irish Dominican Religious and is governed by the principles and values of the Dominican Order, on which the educational principles of its action are based.
At the origin of the College is the Convento do Bom Sucesso with a very rich and ancient history, having been founded in the first half of the 17th century, in the reign of D. Filipe III (IV of Spain).
It all started with the arrival of the Irish priest Daniel O'Daly (Dominic of the Rosary) around the year 1630. His mission was to found a religious community that could receive the children of the noble Christians of his country, persecuted at that time by the Protestants. English.
O'Daly founded the Corpo Santo Community for boys and set out to create a convent for girls. He then learned of the desire of Countess D. Iria de Brito, a widow with no descendants, to donate her estate in Belém to a religious order.
It became necessary to ask the king for permission, who imposed a condition: O'Daly would have to recruit soldiers in Ireland to fight in the war that Spain was fighting with Holland. Once the agreement was fulfilled, Philip IV finally granted the necessary authorization in 1639.
On November 12, 1639, the Convent opens its doors to the first nuns, becoming the first female convent of Irish Dominicans in the world. It was a day of great celebration, with the Duchess of Mantua (the king's representative in Portugal), court nobility, members of the Dominican order and many people attending mass.
Five years later, the first stone was laid for the construction of the new chapel. In 1670 this architectural gem was completed. Inside, there are some pieces of art, such as the magnificent marble altarpiece and a sumptuous silver shrine, made by Evano, decorated with paintings by Bento Coelho. This famous painter of the time portrayed some of the biblical scenes from the “Song of Songs”. Very recently, several restoration works were carried out.
Over the years, this order went through great difficulties, being expelled from the convent for a few weeks at the beginning of the 19th century, under an anticlerical regime of the government of the time. At the request of the King himself, they managed to return with the intention of educating boarding students. They opened a school, helped by “Sisters” from the Convent of the Goat in Dublin ( www.dominicansisters.com ), which developed rapidly. One of the first students was Miss Mariana Russell Kennedy and many others followed.
After 1910, Bom Sucesso was the only Catholic boarding school in Portugal. It became an external school in 1955 and still receives around 700 students every day, aged between 3 and 15 years old."
source: (
visit link)